Monday, March 17, 2014

comics for the week of 03/12/14.

What a weird week.

All New X-Men 24 - Huh. Well, not bad. But it felt thin. I love seeing the kids get to interact with the Starjammers (and the Shi'ar are always a nice X-Men touch) but the highlight here was the Guardians of the Galaxy. I don't know if it's the trailer making me happier to see them or if they just got more time here but they really played well in this issue. The bad things stay bad, though: we have to see Scott Summers acting like a young, too-good asshole again and we have to see Jean Grey discovering her Phoenix self again. Both of those come with positives, too, don't get me wrong, but the point is: hasn't this story been told? Isn't this an EXPLICIT acknowledgement that we're just recycling? The art was beautiful and the chuckles were plentiful, but I don't know that it's incredible.

East of West 10 - Deals with Oracles never turn out well. Death learns that from the get go, if he'd ever deluded himself into thinking anything different. His companions are beautiful, if a bit cowardly, even if that's only momentary, but that full page of his newly scarred face is the best bit. From there, we shift back to Death's former buddies, the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in their kiddified form. They're checking on the Beast, but they're having some doubts. Not in the Message, of course - they seem like the truest of true believers. I'll be honest, as always, when it comes to this book, I'm still not really clear on what's happening here. I know Death fought someone - maybe the Wolf's father? And beat him? And so he got...something? But there was some drama? And the Raven is there, too, as always, and she helps Death win. But at the very end, we either have a brand new character entering the fray or someone I've been introduced to and totally forgotten. Either way, it seems like it's supposed to be set up that he was the one who killed Wolf's father, if that's even what happened. And maybe he's got his (MEGA) high powered rifle (that woofs?) trained on Death and his crew for next? Man. This book is confusing.

Hawkeye 17 - Maaaaaan. What a drag. I saved this issue for last because I had the most excitement for it and I ended up crazy disappointed. I love that Hawkeye will take big swings like this, but when they miss, the whiff is huge. It's a quite little homage to many different things but I don't care for wasting my time this way, which is what it actually felt like. The Pizza Dog issue was similar, but vastly better.

Invincible 109 - Well, I'm glad that I offered the caveat that I did last issue: I truly do not think it matters that our Mark wasn't there for a long time. I think the overall point will stand. He was betrayed and he's going to change. And even though the longish time that this issue covered was glossed over very quickly, the fact remains that a lot of stuff happened. Mark gave this dimension's Rex a new body; an Invincible body! This seems like the worst possible move he could have made. Then, he left that Rex behind, as the boss of a world. (Albeit with the threat of a Monster Girl baby. That'll clearly take a while to clean up, but...) This is LITERALLY the position that Rex backstabbed him for in their own world. This cannot possibly work out well. This is going to have disastrously cascading consequences. Seriously. Mark keeps stacking the deck against himself even where there's no need to do so because he has enough problems cropping up on their own. But he insists on making things worse. What an issue.

The Walking Dead 123 - Great issue, don't want to talk, want the next issue, don't tease me this way Kirkman, MAKE THE BOLD LEAP. Dwight is going to be destroyed by the people who trusted him, Negan sure seems like he's going to lose, but he sure as shit has the momentum right now. WANT MORE.

Book of the week goes to East of West? Despite all my confusion it might have been the best issue this week.